Native Ways

Orange County's early inhabitants, the Acjachemen and Tongva, have a history dating back thousands of years, long before Europeans arrived. In what is now called Saddleback Valley, grasslands and woodlands once spread across the valley floor, with chaparral-cloaked foothills and forests rising to the east and the coastal strand and ocean to the west. These people found ample resources from mountains to coast to sustain their lives and culture, using small game, birds, plants, fish, and shellfish for food, fiber, medicine, and musical instruments. Each fall they harvested acorns from oaks and stored them in granaries. They gathered willow shoots for basketry, bark for skirts and other clothing, and wood for canoes, furniture, and houses called kiicha, which were constructed of willow branches and tules and were remarkably well insulated. Many of the plants used by the Acjachemen and Tongva continue to enrich their culture, and today tribal members still come together, gather plants, and keep their traditions alive. About fourteen thousand years ago, the first people to inhabit North America, the Paleo-Indians, shared the land with ice age animals such as mammoths, giant ground sloths, and saber-toothed cats. About eight thousand years ago, people of southern California made stone tools, mortars, and pestles to grind seeds. About fifteen hundred years ago, Uto-Aztecan speaking people migrated to this land and developed communities that would create the Acjachemen and Tongva culture.

Lake Forest, California · United States